Eating Raoul

 Year:  1982

Director:  Paul Bartel

Screenplay:  Richard Blackburn and Paul Bartel

Starring:  Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, Robert Beltran, Ed Begley Jr., Buck Henry, Richard Paul, Susan Saiger

Running Time:  83 minutes

Genre:  Dark comedy

Los Angeles:  Paul Bland (Bartel) is a wine snob who works in a cheap liquor store, his wife Mary (Woronov) is a nurse and nutritionist, who constantly has to fend off groping patients.  They live in a run down apartment building, where the neighbours frequently hold wild swinger's parties.  The presence of the swingers offends the prudish Blands, who seem to hate the whole idea of sex.  When Paul accidentally kills a drunk swinger who attacks Mary, the couple realise that these swingers tend to carry a lot of cash.  The Blands decide to lure rich swingers to their flat to rob and kill them in order to finance the couple's dreams of opening their ideal restaurant: Paul and Mary's Country Kitchen.  Professional thief Raoul (Beltran) discovers their scheme and makes a deal with them.  However things become more complicated when Raoul falls for Mary, and decides he wants Paul out of the way,

Paul Bartel was a prolific writer, actor and director who made a name for himself with cult science-fiction film Death Race 2000 (1975) for legendary B movie producer Roger Corman.  Mary Woronov first made a name for herself as one of Andy Warhol's "superstars" appearing in several of his films, including Chelsea Girls (1966), before moving on to Roger Corman films, including Bartel's Death Race 2000.  Eating Raoul is a clever, gleefully tasteless comedy, which satirises 1980s consumerism and entrepreneurship,  as well as the "permissive society".  Paul works, and is fired from, a cheap liquor store where he refuses to sell the cheap, nasty plonk that the shop is selling ("But it's so cheap!" "So's lighter fluid, but I wouldn't serve it to my dinner guests.").  Mary is a nurse and seems to be lusted after by every male she comes across.  All they want to do is to move out and open a fine dining restaurant.  Some of the film's funniest moments comes when Mary has to entertain people with a wide variety of peccadilloes in the Bland's flat, at least until Paul has a chance to whack them on the head with a frying pan.  The film is never as gruesome or offensive as it might be, although the treatment of attempted sexual assault for laughs may be problematic.  Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov make a strangely well matched odd couple, and they ended up making 17 films together, usually playing husband and wife.  Robert Beltran, who would later find stardom in the TV series Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001), is good as the charismatic but duplicitous Raoul.  Oscar nominated writer and actor Buck Henry has a very funny role as a lecherous bank manager.  Ed Begley Jr. plays an obnoxious hippie, and Edie McClurg (who went on to scene-stealing turns in '80s comedy classics Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) and Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)) plays a guest at a swinger's party.  Movies directors John Landis and Joe Dante can also be seen in uncredited cameos.  This has become something of a cult film and it is a funny, entertaining movie which delivers consistent laughs throughout. A proposed sequel, Bland Ambition, never came to pass, but Bartel and Woronov did reprise their roles as the Blands in the science-fiction/horror film Chopping Mall (1987) about killer robots running wild in a shopping mall.

Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov in Eating Raoul

Whatever Works

Year: 2009
Director: Woody Allen
Screenplay: Woody Allen
Starring: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Henry Cavill, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr., Michael McKean
Running Time: 92 minutes
Genre: Comedy, romance

Summary: New York City: Boris Yelnikoff (David) is a misanthropic, hypochondriac chess teacher and one time professor of quantum physics. Hating the universe and pretty much everything in it, Boris has little regard for human weakness, but regards himself as a towering genius, frequently pointing out that he was almost nominated for a Nobel Prize. He avoids human contact as much as possible and his rudeness and constant criticisms manage to alienate everyone he comes into contact with. He is also given to long, angry rants about anyhting and everything, which he delivers to anyone who will listen (including the audience).
One night he comes across Melodie St. Anne Celestine (Wood), a 21 year old runaway from Mississipi, who is friendly, unfailingly cheerful and positive, and not particularly bright. Grudgingly, Boris allows her to stay in his flat, and as his attitude towards her gradually begins to thaw, the two fall for each other and eventually get married.
One year later, Marietta (Clarkson), Melodie's devoutly religious and strongly traditional mother, arrives and she and Boris hate each other instantly. Before too long the situation becomes more complex.

Opinions: This film marks Allen's return to New York City after shooting four films in Europe, and also marks a return to the type of comedy that made his name. Allen originally wrote the film in the late 1970s for Zero Mostel to star in, but shelved it after the actor's death. Allen claimed that the only changes he made to the script were to update the topical references.
In the lead role is Larry David, best known as the co-creator of smash hit sitcom Seinfeld (1992 - 1998) and as the writer and star of semi-improvised cult sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000 - ongoing). Here he plays the typical Woody Allen-esque leading man: Neurotic, wisecracking, New York intellectual. It is a perfect match for Larry David's own comedy persona. Evan Rachel Wood complements him well as the adorable, ditzy Melodie. Even though it is kind of diffuclt to see exactly what she sees in the patronising and rude grumpy old man.
The movie is very typical Allen, and will probably please his fans, and is funny and engaging enough to appeal to non-fans as well. The film starts slowly, and the film does feel padded in places, also some of the situations feel quite contrived, but it is entertaining. It features a running joke where Boris addresses the audience directly, much to the puzzlement of the other characters who apparently can't see the audience and believe that Boris is talking to himself.


"Love, despite what they tell you, does not conquer all, nor does it even usually last. In the end, the romantic aspirations of our youth are reduced to, whatever works."
-Boris Yelnikoff (Larry David) in Whatever Works



Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood in Whatever Works